Pretty Nose

Pretty Nose (b. c. 1851 - after 1952) was an Arapaho woman who participated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. She lived to be at least 101 years old and reportedly became a war chief.^[1][2][3]

Pretty Nose
Pretty Nose in 1879, with woven cloth belt and buffalo robe
Born	c. 1851[1]
Died	after 1952
Nationality	Arapaho
Known for	Participation in the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Relatives	Mark Soldier Wolf (descendant)

Biography

Pretty Nose was Arapaho, though in some sources she is referred to as Cheyenne.^[4] She was identified as Arapaho on the basis of her red, black and white beaded cuffs.^[1][A]

Pretty Nose took part in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 with a combined Cheyenne/Arapaho detachment.^[5]

Pretty Nose's descendant, Mark Soldier Wolf, became an Arapaho tribal elder who served in the US Marine Corps during the Korean War. She witnessed his return to the Wind River Indian Reservation in 1952, at the age of 101. At the time he reported her wearing cuffs that he said indicated she was a war chief.^[1]

Pretty Nose was portrayed in the 2017 novel The Vengeance of Mothers: The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill by Jim Fergus.^[6][7][8][9]

Photographs

A photograph taken by Laton Alton Huffman c. 1880 shows Pretty Nose with a young woman named Spotted Fawn.^[10] One source from the Montana Memory Project implies that they were sisters.^[11] She appeared in several of silver prints by Huffman, and they are now part of the collection of the Princeton Library.^[12] Her photo is featured on the cover of The Spirit of Indian Women magazine.^[13]

See also

• Buffalo Calf Road Woman
• Moving Robe Woman
• Minnie Hollow Wood
• One Who Walks with the Stars

References

Notes

1. The two tribes were allies at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and are still officially grouped together as the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes

Citations

1. Tristan Ahtone (September 28, 2014). "The Story of Soldier Wolf". Al Jazeera America. Archived from the original on October 1, 2015. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
2. Mark Herbert Brown; William Reid Felton (1955). The Frontier Years: L. A. Huffman, Photographer of the Plains. New York: Holt. p. 202-204.
3. Hilleary, Cecily. "Smithsonian to Honor Native American Veterans With National Memorial". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 15 January 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
4. Huffman, L. A. "Pretty Nose, Cheyenne Girl, Fort Keogh." (1878) [Image]. L. A. Huffman Photograph Collection. Montana Historical Society Library and Archives.
5. "Women warriors". Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office. June 25, 2020. Archived from the original on October 4, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020. Pretty Nose fought with the Cheyenne/Arapaho detachment (at Little Bighorn)
6. Fergus, Jim (2017-09-12). The Vengeance of Mothers: The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill. St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-250-09342-4.
7. Jane Krebs (September 21, 2017). "The Vengeance of Mothers: The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill". BookReporter. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
8. Fergus, Jim (2016). Mille femmes blanches. 2, La vengeance des mères : les journaux de Margaret Kelly et de Molly Mcgill : roman. Piningre, Jean-Luc. Paris: Cherche-Midi. ISBN 978-2-7491-4329-3. OCLC 960930869.
9. "Jim Fergus : Touche pas la femme indienne !". Femme Actuelle (in French). 3 October 2016. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
10. ""Spotted Fawn" & "Pretty Nose," Cheyenne". Princeton University Library. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
11. "Cheyenne Girls : Sisters". Montana Historical Society. 1878. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
12. "Princeton University Library Collection of Western Americana Photographs (WC064) -- "Spotted Fawn" & "Pretty Nose," Cheyenne". findingaids.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
13. The Spirit of Indian Women. Bloomington, Ind : World Wisdom imprint. 2005. ISBN 978-0-941532-87-7 – via Internet Archive.